SIPA arrests ten people in Bijeljina and surrounding area: Main target is well-known criminal Željko Radovanović Krečo

(Patria) - Željko Radovanović Krečo, one of the members of the Zemun clan, is the main target of the operation that the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) is conducting this morning on the orders of the Prosecutor's Office and the BiH Court in the Bijeljina area, Istraga.ba has learned.

Krečo has been arrested several times so far and is linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. According to Istraga's information, besides Radovanović, Ognjen Vasić from Brčko is also a target of SIPA's operation this morning. The criminal group was monitored last year, and within the application of special investigative actions, it was documented how the members of this group agreed on the appointment of Slobodan Radinković (Head of the Doboj Police Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska) as the director of SIPA.

A total of ten people are under investigation in this case.

Željko Radovanović, known as Krečo, is one of Ljuban Ećim's closest associates. As we previously reported, Krečo is connected to criminals from Gradiška led by Milivoje Lovrenović. Both were arrested in Serbia in 2007 for drug trafficking. The group was directly connected to Ljuban Ećim, the godfather of Željko Ražnatović Arkan, for whom an Interpol red notice was issued due to accusations of war crimes in BiH. This group is connected to the Zemun clan and Luka Bojović.

“The accused Radovanović Željko and Njegovan Predrag, in Belgrade, on several occasions, illegally trafficked the narcotic drugs heroin and cocaine, by which, at the request of the accused Radovanović Željko, the accused Njegovan Predrag, in an apartment at Stojana Protića Street number 39, apartment number 1, which apartment was rented by the person Lovrenović Milivoje, and which apartment was used by the accused Njegovan Predrag for hiding narcotic drugs intended for sale,” reads the indictment filed on May 14, 2008.

One of Željko Radovanović Krečo's financiers is the businessman from Brčko, Ognjen Vasić. As Istraga.ba has learned, Vasić is the godfather of Milosav Mišo Savković, former head of the Administration for Combating Heavy and Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska. Besides Vasić, Krečo collaborated with the criminal Dario Jekić, known as Jeka, who is also a close associate of SNSD delegate Sanja Vulić.

“Radinković will go. He will appoint his man here. He told me not to worry and that he would have his man here to look after me. And we will have him upstairs too,” Dario Jekić Jeka will say in a phone conversation with Željko Radovanović Krečo last year.